Ankita Raina makes winning start at French Open qualifiers

Ankita Raina. Pic/AFP

Indian tennis player Ankita Raina on Monday notched up a hard-fought win over higher-ranked Arina Rodionova in the first round of the women's singles qualifiers at the French Open.

The Indian, ranked 182nd in the world, showed nerves of steel as she bounced back from a set down to beat Russian-born Australian Rodionova, ranked 168th, 3-6, 6-1, 6-4 in a thrilling rain-affected three-setter.

Raina had reached the third round of the qualifiers in the Australian Open, the first Grand Slam of the year. Among other Indians in fray, Sumit Nagal will take on Roberto Macorca in first round of the men's qualifiers, Prajnesh Gunneswaran will meet Germany's Oscar Otte and Ramkumar Ramanathan will cross swords against Michael Mmoh of USA.

This story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed, agencies. Mid-day accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability, trustworthiness, reliability and data of the text. Mid-day management/mid-day.com reserves the sole right to alter, delete or remove (without notice) the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever